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Eruv Dispute in The Hamptons Goes To Court

By Howard M. Friedman

27 East and Hampton Bays Patch both report that a lawsuit was filed in federal district court in New York yesterday by the East End Eruv Association challenging actions by the villages of Westhampton Beach and Quogue and the town of Southampton in preventing agreements with Verizon and the Long Island Power Authority for use of utility poles to create an eruv-- a symbolic boundary that allows Orthodox Jews within it to carry items on the Sabbath. (See prior related posting.) The suit against the Long Island villages and town claims that local officials are campaigning against the eruv.  Officials assert that attaching small markings or strips (lechis) to utility poles violates local zoning rules and sign codes, and that since the poles are in the municipalities' rights of way, government approval is required.  The lawsuit alleges that blocking the eruv amounts to religious discrimination. It asks the court to rule that there is no basis for asserting that local law prohibits creation of the eruv, demands that defendants drop their objections to the eruv, and asks for damages.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 14, 2011 (boomark / email).